DiscoverJust The GistFyre Festival: The $26 Million Scam That Started With a Cheese Sandwich
Fyre Festival: The $26 Million Scam That Started With a Cheese Sandwich

Fyre Festival: The $26 Million Scam That Started With a Cheese Sandwich

Update: 2025-08-27
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In 2017, Billy McFarland promised the world's most exclusive music festival on a private island once owned by Pablo Escobar. Supermodels, private jets, gourmet food, and the biggest artists - all for just $1200 a ticket. What festival-goers got instead was the influencer version of The Lord Of The Flies.


This is the story of how a 26-year-old scammer with a gift for nonsense convinced thousands of people to pay for a party that never existed, and how it all came crashing down in the most meme-worthy way possible. Plus, find out what Billy McFarland is doing now after selling the entire Fyre brand on eBay - for an amount that even he was shocked by.


We give you Just The Gist, but if you want more, there's this:

Netflix Documentary: FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened

Hulu Documentary: Fyre Fraud

Rolling Stone: Inside the Fyre Festival Disaster

Vanity Fair: My Fyre Festival Hell

The New York Times: The Fyre Festival Was Always Going to Be a Disaster

Business Insider: Billy McFarland's History of Failed Ventures Before Fyre Festival

Vice: We Called Billy McFarland During Fyre Festival's Meltdown



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Fyre Festival: The $26 Million Scam That Started With a Cheese Sandwich

Fyre Festival: The $26 Million Scam That Started With a Cheese Sandwich